Urban
The holiday read packed for the trip to Kent this year was Kate Atkinson's Life After Life. It's central premise begs the question - what would you do if you had the chance to live your life over and over again? Small decisions not only change the course of individual lives but also history.
He's foreign, only works one day a year, expects both himself and reindeer to be fed from every household with your hard earned mince pies, carrots and sherry; takes credit for all the toys purchased and now has eyes on your beer. Surely there must a reactionary, half baked, under the influence of medication UKIP policy about this man?
Merry Christmas and a Happy, Tolerant New Year.
Till 2015...
Matt Peers
I think it is fair to say that I am not going to achieve a level of fame where the weekend paper life style sections want a pithy one page interview with me and thoughts on photography. But if they did, it would be something like this...
In other words, get to know their genre, current and back catalogue. It's not only enjoyable, it actually starts to feed in to and improve your own images. To get started, go through the Magnum photographers' galleries and feast your soul there. Alternatively, you could enjoy the images of musicians taken by John Morgan
Image courtesy of John Morgan
The majority of the images you look at will be on some sort of screen, which is understandable. A book however, gives you a tactile, closer relationship with the images the screen just can't match. A real beauty is the recent Martin Parr compendium if you want to put it to the test.
It's like going to see them live and listening to the CD later.
Or in this case just visit the exhibition...
I've spent so much time and money expanding my optical options only to come full circle and realise for street and portraiture work, I only need one lens - a 35mm prime. If I need to get closer or further away I now move my feet.
Two very different images but both taken with the same 35mm prime lens
To improve in any activity, practice, practice and more practice is required. It's heartening to read books like Matthew Syed's Bounce and Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers argue 10,000hours of practice leads to greatness rather than just innate talent. To practice more I needed to stop thinking photography as an appointment hobby , i.e. weekend after next I'm going out to use my camera, to one where a camera is with me most of the time. For some that might be a smart phone, for me it meant buying another camera small enough to carry but still high in image quality.
I've noticed for some people when they get in to photography they aim for techniques such as light trails and slow shutter wire wool burning shots for their wow factor ( I hold my hands up - I was no different). Yes, they can look spectacular, but after a while they just become , well, a bit boring really.
Can't tell which one of the 17 near identical images you like the most? Well, don't display them all for us to decide. Hard as it might be choose just the one, as for every near identical image you add the original impact decreases dramatically.
...its easy to spot and nobody leaves feeling great. An honest expression will always make for a better portrait compared to a forced grin.
Till next time...
Matt Peers
Summer's over and so is the travelling for another year. In the last of the New York blogs ( I promise, I promise) I wanted to share a type of image you may not always consider taking.
I've seen owners detach their rear wheel to deter thieves before, but I've never seen a selection 5 left waiting...?
Like the funnels of a pavement passenger liner, I love the way the third one is leaning in for a bit of support.
Manhattan is all about the skyline until you just look at the midline; then it can be just rows upon rows of vertical lines.
The big highlight for my eldest son this trip was to see the Statue of Liberty. Not for any historical or cultural reasons you understand, no; it's because it was a giant 'weeping angel' in his favourite Doctor Who episode. I'd discussed it and watched it so many times with him, that when I saw this knitwear dropped on 5th Avenue, I immediately thought of the iconic landmark.
Although this doesn't capture the grandeur of Grand Central Station, it is actually quite gloomily lit inside.
Till next time...
Matt Peers
Thanks to an understanding and long suffering other half I was able to indulge my love of street photography within our recent family trip to New York. For me New York is the Mecca of street photography, with a look and a feel that is instantly recognisable. It doesn't matter how much of a fan you are, you can't just turn up to Lords or Wembley and decide to bowl a few overs or a have kick about, and yet wondering through the streets of Manhattan I always feel like I have been allowed on to the biggest, most famous photographic set of them all. The noise, smells, the light and energy of people create a place where it feels a great director from above has shouted 'Action!' and everyone is playing their part. Luckily, it is also saturated with camera toting tourists, making it one of if not the most easiest places to blend in and quietly get on with what you want to shoot.
I'm not keen on the 'mug shot' of thrusting a camera in unsuspecting face, but it amazed me how close you could get without a bat of an eye lid. Unusually for me, my black and white images were few and far between. New York for many photographers is the place where they convert to colour and away from black and white forever. I'm not sure I'm going that far, but that constant vibrancy of life and colour, I can certainly see why.
I've realised over the last year or so that the term and genre of street photography is a contentious one with forums overflowing with arguments about is or isn't included. If, however they provide a smell and a sense of the streets of New York, then I have at least in part succeeded.
Next time: This ain't Kansas now Dorothy... A brief trip, but very memorable trip to Coney Island.
Watching Germany’s triumphant path to World Cup glory the past month led me to reminiscing about my 1995 inter -railing trip to Berlin and beyond ( do people still do inter-railing anymore? Even writing the words Inter- railing feels as modern as frey bentos meat pies and shopping for music at Our Price…). Completely by chance I arrived at the time the Reichstag was wrapped, top to tail in fabric by the artist Christo. If you’ve never seen his work, his schtick is to wrap buildings, tropical islands and cover strips of desert in fabric. It is as odd as it sounds, but in the flesh the scale of the building and fabric is a stunning combination.
So, it was either a sheer coincidence or I was mentally prepared to look at things, that I drove past the old Works building on Icknield St. and saw it draped in shimmering aqua netting, ready for refurbishment.
Birmingham has rightly championed the exploring of some of its hidden spaces to the public, however; here’s one that’s neither hidden nor an art installation, but just as beautiful. Maybe it could be done for other buildings, such as the old Central Library before that sadly goes…?
Till next time...
Matt Peers
I received a porfolio review published last week on the Guardian website. Photography critic David Sillitoe chose the images from thousands of entries to the Guardian’s Flickr group, favourably reviewing the urban abstract themed images. By the wonders of social media, this may not be breaking news, so in case you’ve seen all this before, I’ve added some new urban abstract images as a DVD style extra.
Till next time.
Matt Peers
I once told the acclaimed author David Lodge that I was admirer of his work, only to be told to get lost as he was busy food shopping. It was only meantas a passing compliment rather than a demand of his private time, but nevertheless, from then on I decided to never meet my heroes. However, as the grim reaper continues to binge on our cultural icons this year, that particular rule has gone out the window.